Paul Vallas is the real deal

Nothing against the field of other candidates for mayor, but Vallas is way more qualified to deal with the criminal, financial and other problems facing Chicago.

If you’re looking for someone with the credentials to be Chicago’s mayor, you can’t find anyone better. He’s such a successful administrator that governments across the county have sought him out. Cities like New Orleans have brought him aboard to rebuild its school system after the devastating Katrina hurricane.

But Vallas is more than his stellar portfolio. I’ll get into that a little later. But here’s a quick look at his amazing dossier::

What Chicago needs most is a competent administrator, a manager who can accurately assess the problem and marshal the resources to deal with it. He was Mayor Richard M. Daley’s revenue and budget director, probably one of the cabinet’s toughest jobs, one in which you must have the skills to deal with demands for more money coming from all sides.

He did such a great job for Daley, that the mayor named Vallas the chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools. His term was controversial, as you’d expect as he crafted solutions for the deeply troubled—academically and financially—school system as well as rationalizing the school buildings and facilities to more realistically balance resources and the size of the student population. Those hard choices earned the never-ending hatred of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) that will do whatever it takes to defeat Valas in a run-off election.

But educators who were more interested in educating than in feathering their nest, like the CTU, noticed and they wanted him. In addition to heading the New Orleans School Recovery District, he variously served as CEO of Philadelphia Public Schools and the Bridgeport (Conn.) school system. More recently, he could be seen attending rallies and supporting parents who demanded a voice in their children's education, troubled as he was about the over-the-top rules to shutdown schools during the pandemic.

Additionally. he has served as the Executive Director of the Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission and the primary staff person on the state Senate Elementary and Secondary Education Committee. More recently he has been an educational consultant. He prepared for a lifetime of public service by earning a masters degree in history from Western Illinois University.

But there is so much more to Paul Vallas. I first got to know Paul as I was an op-ed columnist and editorial board member of the Chicago Sun-Times. Paul was a rarity in government—a honest, informed and intelligent straight-shooter that we could rely on to give us the full story. He never hid behind the usual public “service” assertion that it was never a reporter’ or the public’s right to know what was going on.

In my four-decades-long career as a journalist, freelance writer and author, I have never met a man as caring, determined, effective and gracious about his job as a real public servant. There may be others, but I never met them.

He’s running as a Democrat, meaning that I don’t agree with everything on his platter. He has also lost some races for public office, meaning that he was opposed by special interests that couldn’t tolerate a fact- and reality-driven approach to “root causes.”

I no longer live in Illinois, having fled to the Free State of Florida a few years ago. That’ll prompt the usual “keep-your-nose-out-of-our business” criticism. But I was born, raised, educated employed in Chicago and Illinois for almost my entire life. I know the city and state because for decades it was my business—my livelihood—to do so.

Because I still love Chicago and Illinois, I feel an obligation to speak out. Chicago voters now have a real opportunity to right their floundering city. I can only hope they do.